Severe MRSA infections have decreased by 54.2% in U.S. hospitals since 2005, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggesting efforts to combat the deadly superbug are working.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a type of staph infection. While about one in three people carry staph on their skin, usually without getting sick, studies show approximately two in 100 people carry MRSA.

MRSA is called a "superbug" because it is one of the bacterial infections that has developed a resistance to commonly-used medications. The CDC attributes the rise of superbugs to the overuse of antibiotics in the general population.

Since 2005, the CDC has been tracking MRSA cases in nine cities across the United States. An estimated 80,400 invasive MRSA infections occurred in 2011, compared to about 111,200 in 2005, according to the public health organization. The results were published in one of the American Medical Association's scientific journals, JAMA Internal Medicine.
Doctors classify MRSA infections into two types: skin and soft tissue infections, and invasive - i.e. in the bloodstream - infections. Invasive infections are more severe, and therefore more likely to result in hospitalization or death. Most invasive MRSA infections occur in people who have recently been in the hospital or another health care setting, such as a nursing home, said Dr. Raymund Dantes, lead author of the CDC report and assistant professor of medicine at Emory University.

"We found that two-thirds of these infections developed in the first three months of discharge, suggesting that patients are at higher risk of MRSA in the first three months after leaving the hospital," Dantes said.

That risk is lower than it used to be, though. Invasive infections occurring in what the researchers call "health care-associated" community populations dropped nearly 30% between 2005 and 2011.

In the past decade, the CDC has worked with medical professional organizations to publish guidelines for preventing health care-related MRSA infections, Dantes said. State and local health systems have also implemented procedures to reduce patients' risk. For example, more hospitals are requiring staff to use additional protective measures, such as gowns and gloves, when treating MRSA-infected patients to prevent the bacteria from spreading to another patient.

"I like to tell my patients to watch your doctors, nurses and other providers to be sure they are cleaning their hands when they enter your room," Dantes said. "I personally don't think it's rude to remind them if they forget."

The next step for the CDC, Dantes said, is to work on reducing infections that start in patients after they leave a health care facility. Further research is needed to understand how MRSA is transmitted during this period, he said.

Did you see the Frontline program "Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria"? Part of the show was about MRSA. As the young girl is being taken to surgery for a lung transplant, a member of the medical staff high fives her (neither wearing gloves) and then wipes her hand on her leg.

My mom died of MRSA, needlessly. She'd gone to a nursing home to recover from a broken leg, but started to deteriorate. We had to beg the doctor to meet with us twice and all he did was adjust her medication. Then she was rushed to the hospital with the MRSA infection and died a horrible death 8 days later. My father also has had MRSA. In the last 6 months he's been in 2 hospitals and 4 nursing homes. These places are horrible, but I can say that the hospitals use gloves and gowns while none of the nursing homes does. How does that help to control the spread of MRSA? My daughter has now caught it and so did my brother. I have spent hundreds of hours recently in these places and am probably infected, too.

I'm making $86 an hour working from home. I was shocked when my neighbour told me she was averaging $95 but I see how it works now. I feel so much freedom now that I'm my own boss. This is what I do, w*w^w . Best96 . c^o*m-

Too bad we get so many spammers on this article instead of real comments.
I know an older lady who had this. She was in the hospital for months and dealt with it for years. Still having problems due to it. It is nothing to laugh at. Very serious and can be deadly. I know of one person who did die of it.

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